Everything new: First day of school brings new friends, teachers, buildings and school district

Fremont High School Principal Scott Sherman welcomes students to a new school year by opening the front doors of the new Fremont High School this morning. Photo by Ken Stevens|MLive

MUSKEGON, MI -- The first day of school was upbeat today, even with all the change and newness that the new school year brought area students.

Muskegon Heights Public School Academy officials were celebrating a relatively smooth launch of the new charter school district, with enrollment moving past 1,000 students.

In Muskegon, students at Lakeside Elementary and Muskegon Middle schools got familiar with their new surroundings.

And in Fremont, high school students were wowed by their new school building.

New district in Muskegon Heights

"I'm feeling good. I'm feeling wonderful," Muskegon Heights Public School Academy senior Antonio Harris said as he arrived for the first day of school. "It's a new school system, new teachers."

The nation’s first-ever all charter school district got off to a positive start, according to principals who said the district’s new teachers have brought with them enthusiasm and energy.

Enrollment in the district was at 1,014 by the end of the day, which made officials with Mosaica Education Inc., the company operating the school district, happy. The numbers included students who were returning to the Heights after having left to attend other public and charter schools.

Muskegon Heights parents said they were giving the new charter system a chance, with hopes it would improve education for the community’s children.

"I just hope that they'll teach my kids better," said parent Maria Wilburn. "All my kids are smart, but they could be smarter."

Muskegon Heights Middle School Principal Andre Johnson said some students there told him they were ready to dive into academics.

“For the most part, kids were kind of eager,” Johnson said.

The district opened with its share of challenges. The resignation of Donna Johnson, who had been hired as the high school’s principal, a week and a half ago meant Alena Zachery-Ross had to step into the role of interim high school principal as well as regional vice president of Mosaica in charge of the Muskegon Heights charter district.

In addition, Zachery-Ross said about 30 percent of the teachers who had been hired ended up leaving for other jobs in the middle of what she called “pre-service training.”

School offices were busy with families enrolling their children in the charter school, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Zachery-Ross said. Johnson and Hernandez each said they enrolled about 25 new students today, while Zachery-Ross said the high school added about 60.

Gerry Robinson, a Muskegon Heights High School senior, said he was surprised by the school's preparedness.

"They were more organized than I they thought they would be," he said.

And parents said they were happy to give the new district a chance.

“It’s a new beginning – that’s how I look at it,” Melvin Dunbar said this morning after dropping off his son, a second-grader at Edgewood Elementary School.

Muskegon school changes

It was a new beginning for some schools in the Muskegon school district that were repurposed over the summer, including Bunker Middle School, which became Lakeside Elementary, and Steele Middle School, which became Muskegon Middle School for all the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders.

Seventh grader Kaitlyn Schaefer, who used to attend Steele, said the halls were more crowded than before former Bunker students moved over. Still, she liked the change overall.

“I guess there’s more people to hang around with,” she said. “I think it’s better. We’re all in this together.”

Muskegon Middle School Principal Paul Kurdziel called the school “a work in progress.”

“We kind of grow into it together,” he said.

Lakeside Elementary teachers and staff had worked most of the summer to get the school ready, Principal Gay Monroe said.

“It’s just amazing the time and manpower our staff has already put in,” she said.

Third grader Alex Ridolfi said he was pleased with the look of the school. His older brother, Kyle, had gone to sixth grade at Bunker and now is in seventh grade at the reconfigured Muskegon Middle School.

“I used to ask him what it looked like on the inside,” Alex said. “I’m going to make some new friends and learn new stuff like my mom told me to.”

New school in Fremont

Years of waiting are finally over for students in Fremont who were able to walk through the doors of their brand new high school today.

Two years of construction and several more trying to get voters to approve the project paid off for the roughly 740 students who began the new school year in a new school.

“The school itself is just amazing,” said Fremont Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hieftje.

The 170,000-square-foot school perched on the edge of a pond boasts all the newest amenities, from state-of-the art science labs and video production rooms to top-notch security.